Here we are, on the road: We’re in Laughlin, NV.

Sunday, October 9, 2011 Lorraine’s report

Hello from Laughlin, Nevada, the Riverside RV Park. We left Las Vegas Saturday and headed southwest to Laughlin on the Colorado River just across from Bullhead City, AZ. It was an uneventful trip down, about a couple of hours, from Vegas. But the pace here is so much quieter, you just want to slow down and take it easy. It is a whole world of difference than Vegas.

Chuck decided not to take that gun class in Pahrump, it was going to cost a bit more than we wanted to spend right now. The guy running the class said the gun the guys from “D” shift gave him when he retired was not the right type of gun to use for his class. That meant besides the stuff he needed to buy for the class, like 600 rounds of ammunition, he would have to get a different type of gun. A lot more expense than he wanted right now, so he decided not to go to the class in Pahrump; and we came to Laughlin instead.

Well, I need to say that the hot weather headed south this past week. We had big thunder/lightening and rain storms on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. When it rained, it just poured, the weather man said on Monday afternoon it dumped over an inch and a half in under 30 minutes. All the roads and underpasses were flooded, and cars became stuck in the deep water. The temperatures were in the high 60’s to low 70’s with the lows down to the high 40’s. Chuck had to turn on the heater each night for me. It sure was big change from the 105 degrees we had been having.

The rain didn’t keep us from doing our thing this past week. Sunday we did our blog and I went to the pool afterwards.

We went through two time share presentations on two different days to get free show tickets to the Vegas Show on Tuesday evening and toured the Polo Club for free $$, slot play and food. Ken the repairman finished the microwave installation. We had normal errands to run, laundry, just your everyday living stuff.

Tuesday found us going into the Strip for the free show, the story of Vegas. It was a great show, they had singing, dancing, your show girls with all their feathers, just your all around Vegas variety show. It was well worth our time spent at that time share presentation. I wanted to take pictures, but at the beginning, the announcer said no pictures allowed or they would throw you out. He was joking, but they didn’t let you take any pictures. We had a great buffet dinner before the show that was also included.

Wednesdays at the Boulder Station Casino is senior’s day. All buffets are half price all day and they have a free slot tournament. We went over and entered the slot tournament. Chuck did well, me not so good.

The next day I went into the Wal-mart 3 blocks away and had my hair done. The gal did a bang up job, and I would definitely go to her again. I also had my flu shot that day, I hate to get a flu shot, even though they say it won’t give you the flu, I still don’t feel well for a few days after I get one; and I haven’t felt that great since I got it, but my doc says I need it-I can’t win.

Chuck stayed home and did some chores and bathed Misty. He was taking her for a walk to dry off when he turned the corner to the next street when he saw Alice of Joe and Alice from Birch Bay. We rented their extra lot this past year while Chuck worked at BP. Anyhow Alice squealed and Joe came out. They had forgotten that we were still going to be here in Vegas and were surprised to find that we were still here and just around the corner from them, and in the same park.

I was happy and surprised to see them when I got home, also. We took off with them to check how Chuck did in the slot tournament. It turned out that Chuck came in 24^th place for some free $$. From there we went with Joe and Alice to see the new casino, the Cosmopolitan, where we headed to on Sunday, but never made it. Well it turns out that Chuck was again lucky and won a small jackpot, I went down and Joe/Alice also left some seed money. We came back to Boulder Station for dinner, having Mexican food that was very good.

On the way down town, we ran into that Wall Street Protest that has been going on all over the country. They had one in Vegas on Thursday and we hit it just as they started marching in front of the Bellagio Casino, where we were going to park. What a coincidence; it stopped us for about a half hour there, with no one moving in their cars.

Friday morning found us all Joe/Alice, Chuck/I headed down town again. This time Joe and Alice signed up for a time share tour, and were planning on going to see Jersey Boys Show on Saturday evening. Alice was excited to be going. I loved it-great show.

We all went into the Casino Royale to use all the free $$ that was given us by the time share people. What a big rip off! They had only 20-30 slot machines you could use, and you had to win the jackpot to get any $$ out of one of them if you did win. Live and Learn.

By the time we were all done, we were hungry, so we used the buy one get one free buffet tickets. It was a nice buffet, and we all decided that it was best to eat buffet early in the day. We didn’t eat again that day.

It was Joe/Alice’s turn to decide what to do next and Joe wanted to go play at Caesar’ Casino. We headed over there, but went into the mall and walked most of the mall before we found the casino. I think we all left a bit of $ there, but had a nice time. We went back home to let Misty out and rest up before we headed out again, we were all tired

Friday evening we decided to go to Sunset Casino where Joe/Alice wanted to play cards. They had never been to that casino and enjoyed it being so open and so smoke free.

Saturday we packed the rig; Joe/Alice came by to say see you on Tuesday. They are going to be coming to the same RV Park here in Laughlin that day. Sure is a small world.

I forgot to say that on the 3rd of October was the start of our 5th year “On The Road”. Happy Anniversary to us! It sure flies by fast when you’re having fun!

Until next time…

Lorraine

10/9/11 Chuck’s report

We have been on the road as full time RVers now for four full years, as of a couple of days ago. We have driven the motor home about 51,000 miles, towed the car most of those miles and driven the car another almost 69,000 miles. We been to all but four states West of the Mississippi and a bunch East of the river. I think we’ve stayed at least one night in at least 30 different states during that time.

We been able to spend some quality time with our grand daughter, probably more than we could/would have if we weren’t living this lifestyle. We have spent about 6 weeks a year each fall in California with our daughter, she’s come to visit us in Minnesota and of course back in Washington. She and Kaitlyn rode with us in the coach to Los Angles to go to Disneyland and we’ve met them in Reno once too. We drove to Alaska to see our son, also saw him in California and happened to be in Florida the same time he was and had a good visit there too. Lorraine has flown back to California three times to be there for Kaitlyn’s birthday.

We have spent a week out of the coach, Lorraine won a cruise and we left the coach at a campground while we were on the boat. We’ve had some repairs/painting on the coach and had to spend one night in a hotel three different times. We left the coach in Alaska for 5 days when we flew back to Bellingham to attend the wedding of our friends Richard and Sandy. Other than that, we’ve been in our own bed every night, just the locations have changed.

And Lorraine and I have grown even more close, we weren’t sure about being together 24/7 but it works for us!! We’ve managed to adapt very well, learned a lot, seen lots, explored lots and just enjoyed life to the fullest. I know Lorraine misses some of the “stuff” we got rid of and I miss our shop but we’ve managed very well, I think. We decided to try it for 3 – 5 years and both of us now say we will continue for probably another 10 years, God willing and our health and money holds out. Yes, even this lifestyle isn’t free and it’s getting more expensive with the price of fuel and campgrounds going up.

We’ve met some great people who have become great friends and we manage to see or meet up with them in different places. We’ve found that most people we met on the road are very nice folks, be they in a campground or someone we meet working wherever we go. We’ve managed to change our preconceived ideas of different parts of America although we both say we spent way too much time in Liberal Washington, ha. We still manage to get back there at least once a year for doctor visits and to see family and friends. But now we come and go when we want or when the weather says it’s time to go, ha.

I think I’ve worn shorts and sandals more since we’ve been on the road than I have since I was a kid back in Missouri on the farm. We didn’t know anything about motorhomes before we started, can’t say we’re experts now but we sure know a lot more that when we started, that’s for sure.

We’ve gone through three GPSs, thanks to Costco, we were able to return the bad ones and buy newer, cheaper ones. We’ve never been lost but a couple of times we had no idea of where we were or how to get to where we wanted to go. We both say the interstate roads needs some serious work and the bridge approaches are horrible in a lot of places. We’ve found some states have very good secondary roads, others need to spend some money on theirs.

So all in all, we’ve had a very good four years on the road and here’s to a possible 10 more. Wish us well!!

Ok, we spent the past week in Las Vegas, doing the Las Vegas thing. Some of what happened in Vegas will stay in Vegas, however.

I think I mentioned that our microwave decided to quit working. I called a repair guy to check it out for us and the repairs would have been more than it would cost to replace it, or so we thought. So we checked prices at Sears, Best Buy and online, they ranged between $500 – $800, wow. The repair guy suggested we check out a local furniture/appliance store and we found a Frigidaire that was the same size and had more power. This was new, in the box and on sale for $299 so we bought it, took out the old one, changed out the mounting bracket and hung the new one in its place. I had the repair guy cut back the wood trim as I don’t have my woodworking tools with us. All in all, it turned out ok and it works fine, Lorraine cooked a nice steak, halibut dinner one night just to check it out and that turned out very nice too. The road from Vegas to here wasn’t too rough but it seems to ride ok, hope I don’t need to add more support later.

So within the past three months I’ve had to repair the dishwasher and clothes washer and we changed out the microwave. Maybe these appliances are just hitting the end of their lifespan, I don’t know. But its pretty much like living in a sticks/brick home, things happen and we react/fix them. They say driving a coach is like your home being in a large earthquake everyday, things get shook around pretty good so that’s probably the biggest reason for these things going bad than just time and usage.

Now that we are retired, Lorraine and I have gone to time share presentations for free show tickets and such. There are lots of those in Vegas and we signed up for a couple. We have become pretty good at telling them early and often that we don’t plan on buying and so far we’ve been successful.

This trip we ended up with tickets to “The Jersey Boys”, a show about Frankie Valli’s career one night and tickets to “The Las Vegas Review”, a history of Las Vegas, on another night. Plus we got some free slot play, some actual money, free drinks and free buffets. If you have time and are able to say “No” many times, maybe the time share thing is for you too, ha.

The Jersey Boys was pretty good, lots of action, quite a presentation, almost like something on Broadway. The Las Vegas Review was more “off Broadway” in my estimation. They had 20 or so people in the production, changed sets often but it wasn’t as “nice” as the Jersey Boys. Even though we had free tickets, we still ended up with very good seat locations, both shows we were only 6 or 7 rows back and just off center section. The only bad thing for me was when the shows ended and the crowd started for the exits, I got a bit claustrophobic and had to find a different way out. So for the second show, I just left early and waited for Lorraine outside the lobby, worked much better.

On Thursday, Lorraine was at the hairdresser and I gave our dog, Misty, a bath. After drying her, I took her for another walk in the campground. Was I surprised to see Alice a few spots away from us. Joe was still hooking up and very soon we were greeting each other. They had been in Utah and decided to head to Las Vegas and thought we were already in Pahrump and were just as surprised to see us as we were to see them.

We spent most of the next two days with them, going downtown, eating at a buffet, hitting a couple casinos and exploring the area. It’s always fun to be with friends and these are some of our best ones. We seem to enjoy lots of the same things and we know if one couple wants to do something the other doesn’t, that’s no problem and no feelings get hurt.

We had some free slot play from one of the time share presentations and asked Joe/Alice if they wanted to go with us. We managed to get more free slot play for them too, Lorraine and I both had $150 each, Joe and Alice had $50 each. Oh boy, we were on our way to great riches, or so we thought. The slot play was only on a few select machines and you had to win a top prize jackpot in order to keep anything. Any smaller prizes had to be played off, you couldn’t take out any money except for the jackpot. Well, as you might expect, none of us hit a jackpot and we walked away wiser but not richer. So if you go on one of the time share presentations and they award you free slot play, be very suspicious or you may end up at the same place we did. But we still had fun, got two margaritas for $1 too.

Lorraine and I played in a free slot tournament the other day and I came in 24th, won $25, yea. And for the first time ever, I am leaving Las Vegas with more slot money than I started with, big YEA. So I guess you can say they paid me to have fun and enjoy our time there. We have found we like the slower pace at Reno or Laughlin so we purposely don’t add Las Vegas to our itinerary every year, I think we were last here three years ago. Plus there is more to see/do in this great country and we need/want to do other things.

We had been planning on going to Pahrump for this week, I was scheduled to take a handgun training class for four days. There were a couple of issues with taking this class at this time, I just wasn’t ready with this short notice. So, we cancelled for this week and told them we would re-schedule at a later time, maybe next year or even later. They were ok with this and I will be more prepared and know what to expect then too.

So with the training cancelled, we decided we didn’t need to go to Pahrump this trip. We were there last year with Dennis/Barb before they headed to Las Vegas and had a great time but didn’t need to return at this time. So, once again we changed our plans, just like we do all the time. So instead of Pahrump, here we are in Laughlin instead.

The weather has been HOT, high 90s and into triple digits, in Utah and here in Nevada but it started to cool off this week. One afternoon we had a downpour for about an hour. Lorraine heard on the radio that we had over 1 1/2” in a half hour. We were out and about and have some pictures of the flooding that followed, amazing stuff. The highs now are in the 80s, much better for sitting around outside.

We probably will stay here for two weeks, we like this area a lot. Then we will turn and head West, heading to the Bay area to see our daughter and grand daughter, Halloween is coming up soon you know. And Joe and Alice are scheduled to meet us here on Tuesday so we will be able to spend more time with our friends here too.

Ok, and now for some pictures.

Bellagio water fountain show during the day.